Shenanigans Leahy was always a detailed planner, but there was one thing about the opening game that even he could not anticipate-his star quarterback, Bertelli, missed the train going to the Wisconsin game of 1942. The team had stayed in Chicago on Friday night in order to get an early start to Madison. On Saturday morning they went to Union Station to get a special train that would take them directly to the railroad siding next to the field in Madison. The station was crowded with students and other fans who were taking trains to the game. With all the people and so many students, the station was a very noisy and congested place. While the Notre Dame team and coaches were milling around the station waiting for the call to board the tmin, Bertelli was sitting off to the side reading a Chicago newspaper. The place he picked to sit and read was close to a concession stand that partially blocked his view of the tracks and his teammates. The announcement came that the Notre Dame football special was boarding on track 23. The players and coaches grabbed their bags and headed for the gate to board, but with the noise and confusion, Bertetfi did not hear the announcement, nor did he notice that his teammates were leaving the area to board the train. So he continued to read his paper. Instead of all the players boarding at one car as they were supposed to do, they entered from various cars. I'he student manager responsible for counting the players as they boarded, got confused and did not get an accurate player count. The train pulled out of the station and headed for Madison with Bertelli in the station still reading his newspaper. Shortly after his team departed, Bertelli heard an announcement for the boarding of a Notre Dame special and he boarded that train thinking it was the team train-but it was a special for the Notre Dame students. He went immediately to the observation car in the rear of the train and settled back to read his newspaper. A few minutes later, the conductor asked Bertelli for his ticket. Bertelli said, "I'm with the football team. 'They don't give us tickets." The conductor quickly realized what the problem was and said, "You're with the football team? Son, your train pulled out about 10 minutes ago." I In the meantime, on the train that carried the football team, the players and the coaches were settled in their seats. McKeever, the backfield coach, took a walk through the cars and was the first of the coaches to realize Bertelli was missing. He had the conductor send a message to investigate. After many communications between the football train, the station, and other trains, it was determined that Bertelli was aboard the student train headed for Madison and due to arrive at a different siding and much later than the team train. McKeever had the unenviable task of breaking the news to Leahy. As McKeever approached the seats where Leahy was sitting, Leahy said, "Ed, get the quarterbacks, up here." 'The other quarterbacks, including big John Creevey, Bertelli's understudy that year, gathered around the coaches. Leahy looked around and said, "Ed, where is Angelo?" McKeever was forced to inform Leahy. "Coach, we have one player missing. Don't worry, Coach, Bettelli is missing, but we have messages back to the other trains." Leahy jumped up and shouted, "Stop the train-stop the train- Ed, stop the train!" Then Leahy spotted the emergency stop cord overhead and lunged for it. McKeever, using his athletic skills, tackled Leahy and held him down to prevent him from pulling the cord. For the remainder of the trip to Madison, Leahy was a nervous wreck. He could be seen mutteiing to himself and grimacing as if il terrible pain. Dove recalls what happened when the team arrived at the stadiun and went into the locker room. "I can remember getting dressed for the game while Leahy is outside questioning people as they passed by 'Have you seen Angelo Bertelli? Have you seen Angelo?' We got dressed and went out on the field and Leahy remained outside looking for Bertelli. We worked out and came back to the locker room, and still no Leahy or Bertelli. Now, we go back on the field to start the game and Leahy is still outside looking for Bertelli, stopping strangers and asking, 'Have you seen Angelo?' Finally Angelo's train arrives and Leahy spots him running from the train siding to the stadium. He rushed Bertelli into the locker room to get dressed for the game.' Bertelli did make it to the field in time, but his missing the train was an omen of what was to follow. 'The Irish could not put it together that day. Just when it seemed they had some momentum there would be an interception or a fumble. Bertelli's passes were intercepted twice by the Badgers, and twice the Notre Dame backs fumbled inside Wisconsin's 10-yard line. Notre Dame did score when Mello ran over from the three, and was leading, 7-0, when Elroy Hirsch ran 40 yards for a Wisconsin score. The conversion was suc- cessful and the game ended in a disappointing 7-7 tie.
In the 1943 Wisconsin game the Irish breezed by the Wisconsin Badgers at Madison by a score of 55-0. Notre Dame scored on its first possession and hit pay dirt seven more times as Miller scored twice, and Rykovich, Bertelli, Lujack, Mello, Yonakor, and Mike Lyden each scored once. Keeping their aerial attack under wraps, Bertelli only tried six passes, connecting on four for 104 yards. Several of the Notre Dame halfbacks were injured during the course of the game. Leahy decided to put Elmer Angsman, a sophomore reserve who had not played much, in the game. As Angsman was running on the field, Leahy hollered to Bertelli, "Don't give the ball to Angsman! Don't give the ball to Angsman!' In the huddle Bertelli said to Angsman, "Do you know what a 27- slant is?" "Sure," replied Angsman, "that's the off-tackle play." Bertelli said, "OK well call that-when you get to the hole, cut inside because the linebacker is drifting outside. It should work." Angsman took the handoff, cut in as Bertellli had instructed, and got 18 yards. Leahy loved to tell this story in later years to demonstrate the point that coaches are not always right. With just two games under its belt, Notre Dame was already ranked as the number one team in the country. The team's third game of the 1943 season against Michigan at Ann Arbor was billed as one of the greatest and most important games of the college season. Michigan, ranked number two in the nation, had a veteran team with a backfield of Bill Daley, Paul White, and Bob Wiese. Its line was equally talented with such players as Fred Negus, Merv Pregulman and Bob Hanzlik. The game was a sellout with an esti- mated capacity crowd of over 86,000 expected. i Bertelli tells about an incident that occurred the night before the game. "I was with a group of players who were hanging around the hotel lobby. The game is completely sold out and you can't get a ticket anywhere. It's time to go to bed because Leahy is going to have a bed check. As we were going up the elevator, Scrapiron Young, the team trainer, says, 'it's too bad somebody doesn't have tickets. 'There is a guy in the lobby offering one hundred dollars for four to the game.' My mind started to work. I thought,'Ill go and talk to Coach Leahy and maybe I can possibly get four tickets from him and make myself a quick hundred dollars.' "I went to the coaches' room and told Leahy, 'There are four young guys in the service of our country who are here who have not seen me play since high school and have never seen Notre Dame play, and they would sure like to.' "Leahy says, 'Impossible, impossible. You know how things are-it's just impossible. 'There is no way you can get any tickets.' "I said, 'Okay, good night, Coach.' As I started to walk out the door the coach calls me back and says, 'Oh, Angelo, are you sure they are in the service of our countty?' "'Yes, Coach.' "'Are you sure they have never seen Notre Dame play?' "'Yes, Coach.' "Leahy came up with the four tickets. I went down to the lobby, found the guy, sold him the four fickets, went back to my room, and never slept better in my life." Good night, Angelo, and sweet dreams... To read previous versions of Shenanigans click below: September
1998 |